The completed Mural

Our Completion Ceremony

Croatian Mural Symbols

We are very happy to have been chosen to paint a mural for the Croatian Community of South Omaha as part of the South Omaha Mural Project.

We have been asked by the Parish of Saints Peter and Paul and the Croatian Community of South Omaha to create this mural and we have financial support from them as well as from the Nebraska Arts Council and from the City of Omaha Historical Fund. Saints Peter and Paul Parish has been a cultural center for the Croatian community of South Omaha for exactly 100 years and that is why we chose to focus on their mural next! There will be many events next spring to commemorate their anniversary. This year’s project is the painting of a mural about the Croatian community. It will be on Bere’s Hall at 36th and W in South Omaha. We want this to be a mural about the neighborhood and we welcomed people of all ethnic backgrounds to join us in telling their stories of the neighborhood, helping us choose which images to paint and helping us paint the mural!

The schedule for festivities for the completion ceremony and South Omaha Magic City Bus Tour (including murals):

June 25th–

A special mass at 10:00 followed by a formal dinner at noon

A mural completion ceremony at Bere’s Hall at 2:00 with desert and music by the Synovi Tamburitza Orchestra from Chicago (also performing at other celebration events.)

June 29th

6:30 A mass lead by Cardinal Cupich followed by a free choir concert and ice cream social.

Saints Peter and Paul is at 36th and X and the mural at Bere’s hall is at 36th and W.

To RSVP for events (including the bus tour) please call the church office at (402) 731-4713

Thanks to funding from The Nebraska Arts Council, City of Omaha Historical Fund and the Omaha Mayor’s Grant! We are also selling Croatian Garden Flags to help fund the mural.

The Croatian mural will be the fifth official public artwork of the South Omaha Mural Project – a series of ten community-based murals depicting the culture, history, and ethnic heritage of groups that settled these tightly clustered neighborhoods. This project is aligned with history bus tours conducted by Gary Kastrick, our team historian. We are engaging communities to share their memories, concerns and hopes to shape a place-making, community-built monument to their past and ongoing vibrant culture. Efforts like this are shown to reduce isolation, graffiti, crime, and violence and increase the quality of life and spark development of business and tourism. These will enhance South Omaha and provide cultural touchstones.

South Omaha Mural Project murals so far include the “Magic City”, 24th & N streets; the Lithuanian-themed,”Sieninis Paveikslas,” on the Lithuanain Bakery, 5217 S 33rd Ave.; “Del Futuro Al Pasado”, on Mexican heritage at La Plaza de la Raza, 25th & N streets; the Polish, “Nostrovia!”, on Dinker’s Bar and Grill, 2368 S. 29th St. We are talking to representatives of several locations in South Omaha to choose a site for the Croatian Mural. Let us know if you have any suggestions.

The mural team will be lead by Richard Harrison and Rebecca Van Ornam and other artists you can read about here.

We had a call for artists and hire a paid apprentice to help with the mural project too. Her name is Maggie Heusinkvelt.

Maggie Heusinkvelt, Apprentice on the Croatian Mural Project

The design process consisted of six community meetings and three design workshops – discussion and artistic exercises regarding, in this case, the identity, culture, and heritage of South Omaha’s Croatian community. The artists will lead community paint days. During the next month and a half, the artists will work to complete the mural before the dedication ceremony.